Refrigerator-car



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1.

P. W. ROSS;

r REFRIGERATOR GAR. N0. 497.3 16. Patented May 16, 1893. .1. 9 0 5 3 h o J? I X! 50 04 f 1 p x r 2i f I h. i I U7; 94 J/ JV 3' i 5 1 J4; -D B L witnzsses.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

' P. W. ROSS.

REFRIGERATOR GAR.

Patented May 16, 1893.

m: norms wnzns co; ma'murua. WASHINGTO UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PERCY WALLACE ROSS, or Los ANCELEs, CALIFORNIA.

REFRIG ERATOR-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 497,346, dated May 16, 1893.

Application filed August 1, 1891. Serial No. 401.439. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PERCY WALLACE Ross, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, State of California, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Refrigerating and Ventilating Railroad-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention, is to provide a useful and effective method of refrigerating and ventilating railroad cars used for the purpose of transporting fruit and other perishable freight, and to obviate the necessity of using so much ice as is now required in most refrigerator cars, by preventing the rapid melting of the ice as much as possible, which is effected by allowing only a minimum amount of air to pass through the ice. v

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention.

Figure 1 is a cross section of a car provided with my improvement. Line aa Fig. 3 shows the line of section. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line w-ac Fig. 1 looking in the 'direction of the arrow above the view. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on line x-x Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical section on line yy Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical section of a car provided with my invention, illustrating the arrangement of the air conduit 6.

My invention relates more particularly to the construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed, and is for the purpose of furnishing refrigeration and ventilation as hereinafter described.

I will only describe one end of the car, as the apparatus is to be duplicated in all details in both ends.

My invention is designed to be employed in a car whose walls are insulated by filling the space between the outer covering and inner ceiling, with mineral wool or other suitable insulating material, and it comprises the combination of the body of the car L ice-boxes A, A, arranged near the end of the car with a space between them and also with space between them and the sides of the car to form air shafts and having the sheet metal sides h which are preferably formed of galvanized iron and are provided with air passages or perforations F, F, at top and bottom, respectively, opening into the air shafts; a partition P arranged across the car, between the ice-boxes and the main chamber Z of the car, with spaces E E respectively above and below it and between it and the top and bottom of the car to allow air passages between the main chamber of the car and the three air shafts B B B which are formed between the ice-boxes and between such boxes and the sides of the car.

The ice-boxes are provided near their b0ttoms with metal pipes D, preferably of galvanized iron, arranged across the boxes to form tubular ice supports to support the ice. These pipes are arranged to extend at right angles to the length of the car through their respective ice-boxes to communicate between the central air shaft B and the side air shafts B and B". The tubularice supports or pipes D, are reversely bent at their ends as shown at d, cl and are arranged with one bent end (d) turned upward into one air-shaft and the other bent end ((1') turned downward in the other air shaft atthe other side of the icedrip pans O O which slope from their sides to their middle and from the front to the rear where a trapped drain or discharge pipe G (G) is arranged with its mouth above the floor of the drip pans to form an elevated overflow pipe which will retain in the drip pans a portion of the waterresulting from the meltingice. This drain pipe is provided with a trap H to prevent the ingress of air therethrough. The basin formed in the drip pans secures additional economy for the reason that the water in the pans is but slightly warmer than the ice and absorbs from the air a portion of its heat so that as the Water flows from the car it carries with it agreater proportion of heat than it would were the drip pan and the trapped drain pipe not arranged as above set forth.

In practice the air in the shafts B is cooled by contact with the galvanized iron sides h of the ice-box which have been made cool by the ice therein and as it contracts it sinks and passes down the shaft and out through the perforations or air passages F under the drip pan 0 and through the opening E into the body of the car, forcing the warm air from the body of the car to the top of the car and through the air passages E into the air shafts 13 thus inducing circulation of air within the car. Some of the air also enters the ice boxes through the openings or passages F at the top and passes down through the ice and out through the openings 9 in the sides of the drip pans O, and thence out through the openings F into the air shaft, andthence into the body of the car through the opening E. Air also passes from one air shaft to another through the tubular ice supports and is rendered intensely cold thereby, thus increasing the efficiency of the refrigerating device.

Iprovide an air conduit 6 in the ceiling of the car arranged lengthwise therealong and commu nicating with thecentral airshaftsB at each end, and communicating with the air in the body of the car by an opening 6 at its center through the ceiling into the body of the car arranged substantially at the mid-length of the car. The tendency of the warm air to fall as soon as it enters the cold shafts B causes a suction which draws the air through the conduit 6, which thus draws the warm air from the central portion of the car. This circulation is maintained as long as there are any inequalities in temperature of the different parts of the car.

The ice in the ice-boxes retards the passage of air therethrough, and the principal current is down through the shafts and through the pipes which form the ice supports. Thus only a small proportion of the air comes into actual contact with the ice, while a constant circulation is caused through the body of the car over and around the cargo.

For the purpose of ventilating the'car, I provide ventilating cowls J at the ends of the car, fixed over an opening in the roof leading into each outside air shaft B, B said openings to be closed or opened by a valve in the roof worked by a crank which it is not necessary to show in the drawings. The openings in the cowl J are toward the end of the car, so that when the car is moving, a current of fresh air is forced down into the car when the valves are open, and the partial vacuum formed behind the cowls at the other end of the car increases the facility of the exit of the impure air from the rear cowls. The passages into the car through the cowls are to be closed when the car is used as a refrigerating car.

Now, having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination of the body of the car; the ice-boxes arranged near the end of the car with the air shafts between them and between them and the side walls of the car and having the sheet metal sides provided with air-passages at top and bottom; the partition arranged across the car between such ice-boxes and the main chamber of the car, with air passages between it and the top and the bot tom of the car; and the tubular ice supports arranged across the ice-boxes and having their ends re versely bent and respectively arranged with one bent end turned up in one air shaft and the other bent end turned down in the other air shaft.

2. In a refrigerating car an ice-box arranged to form a partitionbetween air-shafts and provided near the bottom with the tubular ice supports arranged across the ice-box and havin g their ends reversely bent and respectively arranged with one bent end turned up in one air shaft and the other bent end turned down in the other air shaft.

PERCY W'ALLAOE ROSS.

Witnesses:

FRANK DALE OWEN, CHARLES FELIX HEINZEMAN. 

